A lot of ideas there, Jeff. Thanks. I don’t believe that there is magic in our brains. I think there is a tendency to view it as magic because of the myth of consciousness. That makes it seem that our brains are more amazing than they really are.

Regarding agency: I don’t think that humans have agency. I think that we have no free will and choice. By freedom, I mean that a system is not controlled by another system. But now my understanding seems to have been revised. Everything is essentially in control of everything else. I also see everything as both intelligent and non-intelligent in its own way.

I don’t seem to be able to keep track of my thoughts on these topics and I have not read the article you’re commenting on since around the time I wrote it (when I probably read and re-read it many times).

Here’s another article I wrote about intelligence a while before that, in which I think I tried to explain this perspective of intelligence as being related to freedom (an approach I no longer apparently agree with).

I started listening to Superintelligence many years ago but I found it too dry and I chose to quit. I was just not in a good frame of mind to read it them. Perhaps one day.